![]() ![]() Dozens of illustrators have reimagined it, including Maurice Sendak three years before Where the Wild Things Are. First published in book form in 1922 by a little-known novelist named Margery Williams Bianco, it has now been in print for a century, selling over a million copies in the U.S. This is the plot of that beloved classic of children’s literature The Velveteen Rabbit. He cries a tear - a real tear - and from the fallen tear there grows a flower, and out of the flower steps a beautiful fairy, and the fairy transforms him into a real rabbit at last. Shivering on the trash heap, the little rabbit wonders what it all was for. But when the boy gets sick with scarlet fever, the doctor orders the rabbit to be burned alongside the other germ-ridden playthings. Eventually, he gets his wish: The boy plays with him all spring and summer, and the rabbit doesn’t mind that his coat has grown shabby and his stuffing is coming out, because he knows he is Real to the boy. From a wise old toy, the rabbit learns that when a child loves you for a long time, you become Real, and the rabbit yearns to be Real himself. ![]() A little boy receives a stuffed rabbit for Christmas. ![]() The first published version of The Velveteen Rabbit appeared in Harper’s Bazaar in 1921. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |